


Want Me, Teach Me

by HeyAssButt2009



Category: Falsettos - Lapine/Finn, Falsettos - Lapine/Finn (Broadway Cast) RPF
Genre: But He Gets Better, Enemies to Lovers, Everyone Is a Teacher, F/F, F/M, Jason thinks Whizzer is the best, M/M, Marvin and Whizzer have a rivalry going on, Marvin does not, Marvin is a jackass in this one, Slow Burn, Teacher AU, Whizzer Brown Deserves Better, Whizzer is in an unhealthy relationship, before Marvin, but it’s brief and adds plot to the story, except Charlotte cause she’s a doctor, gym teacher Whizzer, history teacher Marvin, whizzvin, wow it’s hard to write a teacher fic lmao
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-11
Updated: 2020-04-02
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:00:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 12,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23083609
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HeyAssButt2009/pseuds/HeyAssButt2009
Summary: On his first day of being a gym teacher, Whizzer spills coffee on the history teacher and makes a new enemy.
Relationships: Dr. Charlotte & Marvin (Falsettos), Dr. Charlotte/Cordelia (Falsettos), Jason & Whizzer Brown, Trina/Mendel Weisenbachfeld, Whizzer Brown & Cordelia, Whizzer Brown & Dr. Charlotte & Cordelia & Marvin, Whizzer Brown & Marvin, Whizzer Brown/Marvin, Whizzer Brown/Original Male Character(s)
Comments: 32
Kudos: 90





	1. Excuse Me, I’m Gay, (I Have AIDS), I’m New In Town

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Whizzer gets a new job, some new friends, and a new enemy.

“Excellent work here, Whizzer Brown.” The principal does a double take at the name and Whizzer fights off the urge to sigh, forever hating his parents for naming him that when they could’ve named him something normal like Bryan or even Elijah. But they had went with Whizzer. 

Who knew that his parents could hate him before and after birth? 

Instead he just smiles brighter, hoping that the light would just hit his teeth just right and make them wink, like they do on Tv gum commercials, so he can charm his way into getting the job.

It doesn’t work, but nevertheless the man is still charmed with Whizzers application and Whizzer tries not to show his smugness at the man's surprise.

“Now, it says here that you used to work at Adams Middle High before you got fired.” The man says and Whizzer nods, prepared to tell the story that will once again have a school turn him down. 

“Why is that?” The man questions and puts down the paper he was holding. Whizzer takes a moment to prepare himself, the mans clock is ticking away on the wall and Whizzer registers that it’s already 5 p.m, way past school time. He reckons that John, Whizzer’s current fling, will want him home to cook dinner soon. He dreads going home.

“Well,” Whizzer hesitantly says “they fired me because they found out I had a boyfriend at the time.” He buries the memory of Cameron, usually Whizzer isn’t one for committed relationships, but he thought Cameron would’ve been different and so he changed his ways. Rather than being the slutty boy at the bar, he had become the dutiful boyfriend ready to work. 

Seeing as Cameron had broken up with him for the fact he couldn’t have gotten a job, he realizes it had been a mistake and a big waste of his time. So Whizzer vowed to never date again, opting for the single life with the occasional hookup at the ripe age of twenty-three.

It wasn’t until after breaking up with Cameron only two months ago, he had met John. And now he sorta lives with him. They’re not a couple, not really. More like roommates who occasionally have sex. And Whizzer had been living with him rent free, but when Whizzer decided he didn’t want to drop on his knees everytime John called, he exclaimed that Whizzer would need to pay rent if he didn’t want to have sex when John wanted too. 

So now, here he was once again, applying for a job at a school that would turn him away. 

“I’m gay.” He says as a statement, a fact, like everyone should know. Hell, everyone should. It’s not like he’s hiding it with his pink polo shirt, immaculate hair or tight clothing. The fact that he has such a pretty face doesn’t really hide the fact either.

Whizzer is proud of who he is and if a school can’t see it that way, fuck them, even if Whizzer is in desperate need of their money. 

“Well I assure you that will not happen here.” The man says and Whizzer blinks. “We here at Quincy Middle High are accepting of all races, religions and sexuality. Even some of the staff are a part of the LGBTQ+ community.” 

He says it like he has competition at the school. Like they’re more accepting, and maybe they are. Whizzer knows that his stay at Adams wasn’t the best, but he could put up with all the judgemental stares and whispers he’d gotten. 

Everything had been fine until one of the teachers figured out Whizzer had a boyfriend, and then he got fired. The icing on the cake was when Cameron dumped him. 

Whizzer is actually surprised that the school even has gay staff. He’s never even seen out and proud people outside of pride or the occasional gay bar he goes to once a week or whenever he needs to get laid by someone other than John.

“I can assure you Mr. Brown, that your stay here will be a great one.” Whizzer internally cringes, being called Mr. Brown sounds his father. And Whizzer doesn’t want anything to do with the man, has had no contact with him for over five years now. 

He’s so focused on thoughts of his dad, that he almost misses what the principal had said. 

“Are you saying I got the job?” He asks, a smile blooming on his face. The principal, Mr. White, nods his head and Whizzer nearly jumps up and down. He has a way to pay John now, other than in sexual favors and Whizzer nearly feels like crying.

“I know this is too soon to ask, but can you start tomorrow? Our old gym coach, Mrs.Rose, had to leave. Her wife is having their baby.” 

Whizzer nearly prides himself on the fact the previous gym teacher was gay too. He feels over the moon and he can’t be bothered by anything else. 

“Yes!” Whizzer laughs, shaking the man's outstretched hand. “It would be an honor to work here!” He says giddily. His excitement is bleeding into the air, and the principal smiles at his pure excitement. 

“I promise you won’t regret this.” He says and the principal just smiles more. “You have a lot of potential, kid.” And with that, he sent Whizzer on his way with his own agenda, a tour of the school, and his schedule to be the new gym teacher at Quincy Middle High. 

John isn’t home when Whizzer arrives at 6 p.m. and Whizzer is thankful because he hasn’t gotten groceries yet, and John would be upset because he always wants dinner at the table around 6:30. 

So instead, Whizzer just orders pizza and goes over his plan for his first day of school.

* * *

  
The next day, Whizzer enters the school with a duffle bag. He’s excited to show the kids how fun sports can be over the next couple of days, especially baseball because that’s his favorite thing to play. He’s also excited because being a gym teacher is easy, and he really doesn’t have to teach anything. And he can play dodgeball all day!

John didn’t show up at the house this morning either, and Whizzer was grateful but he sent the man a text telling him where he would be just in case. John hadn’t answered back.

He looks down at his syllabus in his hand, despite already looking over it the night before. He has lunch in between his third and fourth class and his sixth class, his last class of the day, is a free period. So technically Whizzer could go home before anyone. 

Technically, he could. If no one catches him. 

He walks up to the front doors and glances at his watch. 6:25 a.m. If Whizzer didn’t need the money, he wouldn’t be caught dead waking up any earlier than 10 a.m., but sadly he is an adult and has bills he has to pay and responsibilities and all that bullshit. 

He opens the doors and notices the familiar walls of the hallway he had seen the day before. He’s thankful the Principal had given him the whole tour yesterday, for he would be lost but he just whistles a familiar tune and clutches his bag tighter as he makes his way to the teachers lounge to sign in and maybe get some coffee. 

When he passes the rows of never ending lockers, he stares at the door to where he’s sure teachers will be chatting away on the inside at. Whizzer is not a people person, and if he was the same person he was nearly 5 years ago, he would have never even considered this job. But he’s a changed man, hoping to make some friends even if he’s uncomfortable by the whole ordeal.

Being surrounded by teenagers and teachers is a little overwhelming, but this year Whizzer wants to push himself out of his comfort zone. And despite what people think, he’s not here to make enemies. Although if the challenge arises, he won’t hesitate to fight back. 

He has to remind himself to take a deep breath. This isn’t high school anymore, not in the same way it used to be, and Whizzer is certain that none of the teachers will be full on jerks to him because he’s gay. The principal had said that some of the staff was too, and he’s had no complaints about staff bullying or barely any bullying.

He takes a deep breath and opens the door. 

The first thing he notices, is that they do indeed have a coffee machine, with sugar and creamer, and Whizzer nearly sighs in relief. He isn’t going to have to suffer through the day without it and he won’t be cranky on this exciting day of his life.

The second thing he notices is the group of three teachers who are sitting down at one of the tables. Their conversation stops when Whizzer enters and they just stare at him. For some unknown reason, Whizzer feels like he’s their prey.

He doesn’t really know what to do, so Whizzer busies himself by going up to the coffee machine and fumbling with a paper cup before looking at it in complete silence for a moment.

“You must be the new algebra teacher.” Says a voice behind Whizzer and he nearly jumps, turning around and realizing it’s one of the teachers from earlier. 

She has blonde hair, blue eyes and a bright smile that somehow puts Whizzer at ease and actually makes him smile back at her. 

“Um, no actually.” Whizzer says relaxing before putting his cup down and nervously holding his hand out to the older woman. A flood of thoughts rush through Whizzer. 

Is he too young for them to make friends with? Do they already hate him? Are they homophobic? He snaps out of his thoughts. 

“I’m the new gym teacher.” 

She looks at his outstretched hand, raising an eyebrow at him before gently clasping it in her own dainty ones. Her smile never wavers. “I’m Cordelia Abrams, the Home-EC teacher.” She let’s go of Whizzers hand and instead loops her arm through his. And before Whizzer can react at the unfamiliar touch, she starts walking towards her table. He forgets all about his coffee he was going to make. 

“Come sit with us…” She says trailing off and Whizzer realized he hasn’t told her his name yet. “Whizzer Brown.” He replies curtly and she nods, not even questioning the odd name before walking the short distance to the table where another female and male stare back at them expectantly. 

“This is Whizzer Brown,” she announces to the table before pushing Whizzer into an empty chair and sitting next to him “the new gym teacher.” She explains and the other occupants nod. 

“I’m Trina Cohen.” Says the other woman and Whizzer turns his head to look at her soft, beautiful face. She has brown hair and eyes to match, just like Whizzer and she smiles the same bright smile Cordelia did and Whizzer starts to feel a little uncomfortable for some reason, like something is brewing in the air, just waiting to reach out and jump at him.

“I’m the English teacher.” She explains and Whizzer nods, not really knowing what to say since Cordelia has introduced him. “But I’m not related to the history teacher, in fact I want nothing to do with him.”

Whizzer raises an eyebrow, seeing if she’ll elaborate. She doesn’t. There’s apparent history there and Whizzer doesn’t want to get involved. Or maybe he does. He hasn’t decided yet. Everything’s still new.

“I’m Mendel Weisenbachfeld.” Says the man and Whizzer blinks because that is the most Jewish name he has ever heard but Whizzer cannot poke fun at it just because of his own. 

“I’m the schools psychiatrist.” He says puffing out his chest. “The best actually.” He flashes a smile at Trina who ignores him and goes back to sipping at her coffee. Whizzer pretends to not have noticed the awkward exchange. 

“Usually Marvin comes and hangs out with us but he’s running late.” Cordelia says to Whizzer, like he has any clue who this Marvin person is. “He teaches history.” She explains and Whizzer notices how Trina turns her nose up at the mention of his name. 

“And he has a bad temper but he’s really nice when you get to know him. Even if he does make you feel like you’d rather be anywhere else.” Whizzer nodded, Marvin sounds like an asshole and Whizzer doesn’t want to deal with another prick who would just talk down to him like his father had.

“I let him have Jason this week.” Trina explains and Whizzer doesn’t even know who Jason is or why she let Marvin have him, he sounds like the kind of person who’d kill anything he’d come in contact with. She turns to Whizzer. 

“He’s my son. And Marvin’s, I guess. Biologically.” Whizzer nods, the statement had answered his previous question but has left more unanswered.

Even after having never met the guy, Whizzer is happy Trina had gotten away from the marriage, even if she has to see him at school. Trina seems so nice and doesn’t deserve to be unhappily married to someone like _Marvin._ He knows he just met her, but he has a feeling they’ll be friends at the very least.

They talk for a little while until it becomes nearly quiet and Whizzer excuses himself to get his abandoned coffee cup before he has to head to the gym. He can’t get through the day without at least one cup or he becomes a slightly better, not worse, person than this Marvin guy.

He starts on a fresh batch, spooning the coffee grounds into the machine before hitting start and waiting in silence for it to finish while his three new associates continue chatting away. 

He sits there for what seems like forever, not really thinking about anything and he goes to fill up his cup, already filled with creamer and sugar, when the door bursts open and a deep voice rings out. 

“Sorry I’m late, Jason stayed up late playing chess _again_ and didn’t want to stay up for the bus. So I drove him here.”

Whizzer isn’t really paying attention, so he goes to stir his coffee with the plastic straw he’s pulled from the counter. The voice is getting closer and when Whizzer turns around he immediately collides with something solid. 

He hits the counter with an ‘oof’ sound and realizes five seconds too late that he’s dropped his coffee on him and the stranger. 

Even though there’s only five people in the room, it becomes deadly quiet and Whizzer feels something lodged in his throat. 

Whizzer’s frozen in time for a moment before he looks up and locks eyes with the stranger. He immediately straightens up and starts pulling the napkins that are on the counter next to the sugar packets, deep down feeling embarrassed for spilling something on someone on his first day.

“I’m so sorry, sir.” He says a little shakingly, he doesn’t know this man so it doesn’t really register in his mind that he could be a teacher, and not the Vice Principal or someone higher up.

He dabs at the man's shirt, ignoring the ugly tie, but he doesn’t think he’s doing much because the shirt is white and Whizzers coffee was a light brown color and it seems like he’s only making it worse. He really can’t afford dry cleaning in New York. And he can’t really borrow more money from John without taking him to bed.

The man says nothing for a moment, just swats Whizzers hands off him like he would do with a bug. Whizzer looks down at the angry man in shock. He was just trying to help, even if he did make things worse but the man could’ve gently pried Whizzer off of him instead of hitting him like he was dirt. The man stares at Whizzer, looking absolutely pissed before he opens his mouth.

“Who the fuck are you?” 

He says it in a harsh tone, way harsher than Whizzer is used too. But Whizzer stands his ground, he won’t be talked down to like he’s trash off the street. If this man wants to fight, Whizzer will push. 

He instantly clears his face of any emotions, like he does when his dad or even John talk to him, before smiling a bright smile and faking it till he makes it. 

“Whizzer Brown.” Whizzer says confidently with a smug little smile, like the man is supposed to know who he is. He sees confusion on the man's face, like he just spoke in a different language and maybe Whizzer had. 

“Are you the new algebra teacher?” The man questions crossing his arms. 

Whizzer refrains from rolling his eyes. 

“I’m the new gym teacher.” Whizzer says exasperated. The man cocks his eyebrow at Whizzer, like he doesn’t really believe him. 

“You look too young to be a teacher.”

“Well, I am.” Whizzer says, rolling his eyes at the man's disbelieving look. “I teach volleyball, basketball, baseball, racquetball….” He trails off in explanation as if the man doesn’t know what gym teachers do, like he lives under a rock and probably never had a gym class when he was in school.

“You must be really good at handling balls then.” The man says in a snide tone and Whizzer almost laughs at how he phrased the sentence. The man doesn’t even realize what he said and Whizzer doesn’t even bother taking pity on him.

“Well I’ve had no complaints so far.” He smirks and the man does a double take. Snickers erupt from behind them and Marvin turns to glare at the other three before snapping his head back up at Whizzer. 

“I...Why you...That’s highly inappropriate to say.” The man hisses, a loss for words, blushing to his roots and Whizzer shrugs. 

“We’re in the teachers room man, chillax.” He says like it’s the easiest thing in the world and now it’s the strangers' turn to roll his eyes. 

“Chillax?” He asks. “Are you fucking twelve?” He asks Whizzer harshly and takes a step closer to him. He can feel the man stare deep into his soul, but he’s not backing down. 

He also takes a step closer to the man until they’re practically nose to nose. Whizzer has to bend his head to look down at him and he prides himself on the fact that he’s taller than the man.

“Im sorry, do I need to speak more clearly for you, _grandpa_?” Whizzer asks through clenched teeth. The man squints his eyes at him.

“Oh I’ll show you grandpa,” He says raising his arm but gets cut off as Trina pushes them off of each other, finally coming to Whizzers rescue when he could’ve needed someone right when this mess happened.

“Marvin.” She says facing the man, Marvin, her ex-husband, and completely ignores Whizzer, her back facing him. Whizzer is glad for the little wall she had become. 

“Calm down.” She tells him. “It was an accident.” She says but it seems to do nothing to calm the angry man down. 

“Accident or not, the brat ruined my shirt and tie!” He exclaims and Whizzer snorts, partially offending at being called a brat.

“Ruined? I practically did you a favor.” Whizzer says and Marvin goes to step around Trina, but she quickly grabs his arm and rushes outside, throwing an apologetic look to Whizzer saying they’ll talk later. 

“This isn’t over Whinston!” Marvin sneers before the door closes and Whizzer yells “It’s Whizzer!” a beat too late. He wants to go out there with Trina and Marvin, maybe finish what Marvin has started.

Instead, he goes back to the table where Cordelia and Mendel are still at and slinks into his chair. 

“So that was Marvin?” He questions. 

“Yep.” Cordelia replies.

“And Trina married him?” He asks. 

“Sadly.” Mendel says. 

“Huh.” Whizzer huffs. The table becomes quiet once more. 

“What a dick.” He exclaims. 

“Agreed.” Mendel and Cordelia reply and once more the table is silent.

He glances down at his blue collared shirt and sighs. There’s coffee stains on it. It’s practically ruined by now. He hadn’t even paid attention to his own shirt when the incident happened, not wanting to get on anyone’s bad side today but nothing ever works out for the glorious Whizzer Brown.

Whizzer hasn’t even had his morning coffee yet, but he can already tell today is going to be a good day. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I’ve been sitting on this idea for awhile now! I’m making it up as I go but I promise this will be worth the read (kinda?). Kudos and comments are always welcome! Thanks everyone for reading my previous stories!


	2. No Use Crying Over Spilt Coffee

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jason is introduced and makes Marvins temper get the best of him.

Whizzers first half of the day consists of teaching the middle schoolers, while the last half is highschoolers. Which is fine with him, from what he’s heard the kids here are a little bit more behaved than his last school. But kids are still kids and he’d rather not run into trouble with anybody else today.

The school had given him a uniform, but Whizzer had taken one look at the offending pale orange garment, that didn’t correspond with his skin tone _by the way_ , and decided to go with his own all white one instead. It may be a little snug to wear in front of kids, but Whizzer could care less. At least he isn’t actually naked and it covers up everything.

The color of the school uniform reminds Whizzer of his own shirt that is in Cordelia’s washer. He’s glad the blonde is really nice, and a home ec teacher. Otherwise his shirt would’ve been beyond destroyed if she had not had taken it from him. 

The only thing he wears from the school is the fancy new whistle that’s around his neck. Wearing it gives Whizzer a sense of power, and he’s going to abuse it.

He walks the floor of the gym, taking in his seventh grade class who sits down with legs crossed in alphabet order so it would be easier for Whizzer to remember them. At least that’s what the principal had told him that’s why they do it, but as he looks across the faces of some children, Whizzer realizes that he’d probably won’t remember any of them. 

After he surveys the room, he raises his clipboard to start taking attendance. 

“Rebecca Applebaum.” He says glancing around the room and looks at where a hand has been raised and Whizzer wants to roll his eyes at the formality of it all. If they were in an actual classroom, it would be fine but they’re in a gym, a place to have fun and not worry about anything other than getting hit in the head with a dodgeball.

“Here.” She calls and Whizzer nods, before ticking her name from the box and looking at the name below hers.

“Jason Cohen.” He calls. The room is silent. It doesn’t even register in his mind that this Jason was Trina’s until he did a double take of the last name and nearly groaned. Why did the universe tortue him so?

He clears his throat a little more firmly than he should, and he notices some kids are starting to get a scared look on their face, but a few are laughing. 

“Jason Cohen.” He goes to repeat and there’s still no answer, so Whizzer shrugs and goes to mark Jason as absent, but one of the kids goes to shove a sleeping kid on the shoulder, and the kid darts up, clearly startled. 

“Present!” He nearly yells, eyes once tired but now filled with fear. Whizzer takes pity on him, despite who his dad is and just nods, marking the present box and just assuming this kid was Jason who didn’t answer him previously. 

He does a double glance to make sure, and there’s no doubt this kid is Marvin’s, he looks exactly like him. 

This goes on for a while, Whizzer immediately forgetting everyone's names except for Jason right after he’s called on them. He has to remind himself that even though this kid _is_ Marvin’s, he’s _not_ Marvin and hopefully his attitude is better. And unlike his dad this kid won’t throw any beverage on him. 

“Alright,” Whizzer says when he’s done “as you all know I’m your new gym coach.” Whizzer hears a cough from the back of the gym followed by an “obviously.” He throws a glare towards the back of the room.

After the incident today, he’s not really in a happy mood. Especially when the cause of said mood’s kid is in his first class of the day.

“My name is Mr. Brown but don’t call me that unless you want detention. Call me Whizzer, I don’t care about formalities.” He says walking around the gym and throwing his clipboard on his desk and pushing out the cart full of basketballs. 

His mood is sour and instead of wanting to play softball like his original plan was, he decides the kids can have their own fun while he has peace from them and hopefully he can read the book that is laying on his desk. 

“I’m sure you all know what to do by now, so have at it.” He says and gestures to the basketballs. No one moves and Whizzer looks at them expectantly, to just get up and play and to stop staring at him like their seconds away from jumping him at once and just be normal kids.

“Aren’t you going to make us do our daily exercises?” Asks a blonde kid named…..something Whizzer can’t remember. Probably Jeremiah. Or was it Julian? Jebediah??? Ew. Whizzer’s nose scrunches up and he quietly scoffs.

“No? What the fu...What even is that?” He says. “Just go be kids and have fun, and don’t break anything.” 

Everyone gets up cheering, looking at Whizzer like he hung the moon before they go to play. Whizzer smirks smugly, he’s going to be _great_ at this.

He goes to sit at his desk and picks up his novel. It’s quiet for a few seconds except for the sounds of screaming kids and Whizzer glances up to check on them, to make sure that screams are of joy and not terror, when he notices the boy from earlier, Jason, has not moved. 

“Hey kid.” Whizzer says getting the boys attention. “Why aren’t you playing?” He asks and the boy frowns before picking at a stray piece of his frayed jeans, clearly bothered by something. 

“No one will let me play with them.” He quietly admits. 

Whizzer frowns. “That’s when you go to them and show them who’s boss. It’s what I would do.” He says and goes back to his light reading, glancing at the kids every few seconds. 

Except he’s distracted, somethings bothering him and he looks straight ahead of him to realize that Jason is still sitting there, _staring,_ and it makes Whizzer shift in his seat a little bit uncomfortably.

“Are you going to sit there for the whole 50 minutes?” He questions the kid when they don’t break eye contact for a while.

“I don’t want to play basketball.” Jason says and Whizzers sighs and shuts his book. Edward can wait for him a moment longer. He has a stubborn child to deal with.

“Look this isn’t a place where you can just do what you want. This is _school._ ” He says nearly rolling his eyes. “Sometimes you just have to do things you don’t like.” 

The boy just sighs and glances at Whizzer again, before clutching his knees to his chest. The sight alone is pitiful, and it reminds Whizzer of when he was in middle school. The only queer kid out, never fiting in with the boys or even the girls. Whizzer sighs and says something he’ll regret. 

“What do you want to do?” 

The kid's eyes light up, and he jumps up to his feet before going into the closet where all the equipment for sports are, and comes back with a chess board. Why there’s a chess board in _gym_ of all places, Whizzer will never know. 

He holds up the box to Whizzer, like he should be excited about _chess_ of all things, and Whizzer knew that he’d regret his previous question. But the kid is lonely, and it would be wrong of Whizzer to just turn away when a kid needed someone.

“I don’t know how to play chess.” He admits, getting up and sitting down in the space Jason had patted, signaling Whizzer that he couldn’t escape what he started. 

He glances around at the other kids once more while Jason sets up the board. “I’ll teach you.” He said and Whizzer watches as one of the girls steps up to basketball goal to watch her shot go in and Whizzer cringes when the ball misses the net completely, bouncing off the rim and hitting another girl in the face. 

Whizzer grabs his whistle and blows at it. The loud noise of it echoes around the gym and a few students flinch. “Just walk it off, uh, girl!” He yells and turns back to Jason who gestures for him to go first. 

He picks up one of his black pieces and Jason sighs when he moves it. 

“That’s the Queen.” Whizzer moves it back and begins to pick up another piece and Jason tuts at him.

“No, that’s the Knight, you have to move the pawn.” Jason says exasperated and Whizzer has to remind himself that it’s not nice to snap at little kids. He doesn’t know what the pawn is so he picks up another piece, Jason shakes his head. He puts it down and goes for another piece, Jason cringes. 

This goes on for a while until Whizzer finds the right piece and Jason cheers. Whizzer refrains from smiling too hard, because he’s most definitely about to get his ass kicked by an eleven year old. 

And usually that would upset Whizzer with any regular kid, but Jason is something else. Whizzer can tell he’s insanely smart, something he had to have had gotten from his mother. Jason’s father is a different story. 

The game ends fairly quickly, with Whizzer losing like he predicted and Jason smiles. “You sucked in the beginning, but you’ll be a quick learner.” He says and Whizzer gently scoffs before gesturing for Jason to set up another game. 

“I’m totally gonna kick your ass this time.” He says jokingly before he remembers Jason is a kid and he brings his hand up to cover his mouth. 

“You didn’t hear that.” He says and Jason giggles before looking at Whizzer. 

“You’re cool Mr…” he trails off when Whizzer glares at him. “Whizzer. I like you.” 

Whizzer’s heart melts and he wonders how someone like Jason could come from Marvin. 

“You’re pretty cool too, kid.” He says back and Jason’s face gets impossibly brighter. 

“Thanks.” The kid beams and gestures to the board. “Your move.”   
  


* * *

  
“Whizzer is so cool.” Jason gushed for the tenth time that day since Marvin had picked him up from his last class. Marvin didn’t know how many times he’d have to hear about Whizzer, but he’d rather die than hear his weird ass name again. 

“He played chess with me even though he didn’t know how to play. He sucked at it.” Jason says and Marvin nearly laughs, a little victory bubbling up at the back of his throat.

Marvin doesn’t suck at chess, but he has never beaten Jason at it, and hearing Whizzer losing against the kid inflates his ego just a bit. 

Marvin bets he could beat Whizzer at chess. Not that he’d want to play against him. The guy is a massive jackass and Marvin would rather die than be caught in the same room than him. 

“If your name is Whizzer, I don’t think you have the right to be cool.” Marvin says and marks a big fat 78% on Sally Reid’s paper. 

Jason just blinks and looks at his dad. “I think his name is cool.” He defended and Marvin rolled his eyes before taking off the jacket he’s been wearing all day, the room was beginning to get a little hot.

“What’s on your shirt?” Jason asks him and Marvin looks down. 

He’d nearly forgotten about this morning (he lied, it was all he could think about). His temper flares up again and he has to remember his therapy lessons, but the thought of Mendel makes him more angry, so he just takes a deep breath and reminds himself to stay calm.

“Whizzer spilt coffee on me this morning.” Marvin says simply, seeing no point in lying to his son who is very sneaky and observant and who will find out sooner or later.

Jason nods, like he understands. “So you know Whizzer?” Marvin hesitantly nods, he can't really express his hatred for Whizzer because Jason seems to already love him and even though Marvin wouldn’t hesitate to trash talk the jerk, he can’t do it to his kid.

“Wow, you guys must be friends.” He beams. 

_Far from it actually_ , he wants to say. 

“Yeah, we must be.” Is what comes out instead. 

Jason quickly loses interest and starts to work on his homework, still chatting about Whizzer, much to Marvin’s annoyance, until Trina can come by and pick him up. 

Marvin feels as if he’s about to lose his marbles hearing Jason talk about Whizzer, he’d rather go back to when all Jason cared about was chess. All he hears is Whizzer this and Whizzer that, not even a ‘wow dad I can’t believe no one complimented your new tie today’ or ‘wow dad I love you so much, can I have the new version of chess they just released?’

“Sorry I’m late.” Trina said when she entered the door. “I had to go to Cordelias to give someone their shirt.” She glares at Marvin, like it’s his fault that Whizzers shirt got ruined. It wasn’t.

He ignores her and goes back to grading the tests everyone had taken today. 

“Jason, let's go.” She says, noticing Marvins cold shoulder. She gives him a pointed look, the one saying _we’ll talk later,_ like they haven’t talked earlier this _morning_. 

Trina had chewed him out when she dragged both of them out of the room, saying that no matter who angry he’d gotten, it wasn’t Whizzers fault and he’d gone overboard with the whole situation. And she reminded him to continue his sessions with Mendel (“He’s a school psychiatrist, Trina. How certified is this guy anyways?” “Don’t worry about that he’s really excellent and you need to control your problem before you hurt someone.”) 

“Bye dad.” Jason says giving him a hug, Marvin gladly returns it with a smile on his face. Jason rarely gives hugs ever since Marvin and Trina split so whenever Jason decides to give him one, he cherishes it. 

“Bye son.” He says and they shortly leave, not even a goodbye from Trina, just a brief look. Marvin sighs and goes back to grading papers before his mind wanders off. 

Even when Jason is gone, no longer rambling about Whizzer, he still thinks of the man. The hot coffee being spilled on him. Whizzer groping at him to get the coffee off but making it worse. Marvin pushing him away. Whizzers smug look when everyone laughed at his joke. His full lips curving into a smile when he thinks he’s got Marvin right where he wants him. 

His gorgeous brown eyes staring at Marvin with such anger and malice. Not gorgeous, _disgusting_ , Marvin reminds himself. Whizzers eyes are nothing special, and Marvin doesn’t find the man attractive. 

Whizzers annoying, yet devastatingly handsome, face is circling through his mind, making him break his pencil in absolute anger. And okay maybe Whizzer was a little bit attractive but he’s also a big jerk.

He’s clearly lost in his rage because he doesn’t remember picking up his cup and walking towards the gym. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter done! Kudos and comments are always appreciated. And because of the coronavirus outbreak, my school has 2 weeks off which is great and has my anxiety going off at the same time. But pls everyone be safe and kind to one another during this! We’re all human and struggling through everything! Just be kind!


	3. Men Who Aren’t Quite Men Yet

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Introducing John, Whizzers headache and reason for angst. Also a reasonable time skip with a hint of Marvins backstory with Trina.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Expect more time jumps in the future because of the way I outlined this, it’s sorta similar to the musical.

Before Whizzer knew it, it had become the end of the day. He had made all his classes play basketball while he read his novel because his mood still hadn’t calmed down. And now it’s well after his free period, where he should’ve used it to clean, but he had to finish the book and now he was picking up basketballs when a voice rang out behind him.

“I see you're still handling balls.” Said the voice and despite only hearing it this morning, Whizzer could tell it belonged to the one and only Marvin. Whizzer sighed out loud before rolling his eyes.

“As long as they’re not yours, I’m fine with a little fondling.” Whizzer replied in a monotone voice and turned to look at the man. He stood with his arms crossed, dressed in his ratty corduroyed that Whizzer itched to burn. 

“Marvin.” He said distastefully. 

“Willard.” Says Marvin glaring at him. 

Whizzer glares back, that is so not his name and Marvin knew it. Whizzer could tell by the smirk on his face. 

“It’s Whizzer.” He says. “It’s not that hard to remember it, but since it’s you I’ll give you a pass.” 

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Marvins face goes red and Whizzer ignores the man who’s standing by the door and goes into the supply closet to deposit the basketballs. He picks up his bag to leave before looking at him once again. 

“Look,” Whizzer says when Marvin hasn’t spoken in a while “I’m willing to forget the accident you caused this morning, I’m new and I don’t want any trouble and if you’re here to jump me I should let you know I’m trained in karate. Black belt.” 

He goes to push past the man but Marvin holds up his hand in a gesture to stop and despite all better judgement, Whizzer does. 

“I don’t care what the fuck you were trained in, could’ve been the circus for all I know, but let’s get one thing straight.” Marvin says taking a deep breath. “This morning was your fault and I demand an apology for you ruining my shirt.” 

Whizzer snorted. There’s no way this guy was serious, right? “Your outfit was already ruined anyways.” Whizzer said. “Next time don’t wear something so hideous and I _might_ forgive you.” 

He goes to move around Marvin, who’s still blocking the door, but Marvin puts a hand on his shoulder and pushes him back a couple spaces. 

“Hey man.” Whizzer says a little defensively. He should’ve left school ten minutes ago and started on dinner, John could be home any minute and Whizzer doesn’t want to be home after him. 

“Let me leave.” He says and Marvin cocks his head to look at him. 

“Not until you apologize.” Marvin says and Whizzer pinches the bridge between his nose before looking at the stubborn man before him. Dealing with Marvin won’t be easy, but Whizzer is getting impatient and is in desperate need to go home.

“Look, you’re being really childish and I have to go home and make dinner soon so please let me leave.” Whizzer says once more, looking at the man in what he hopes is his best puppy dog eyes. Marvin doesn’t falter, however, and he shakes his head. 

Whizzer sighs, he guesses he’s going to have to be the bigger person if he wants to get his way and hopefully not upset John. So he swallows his pride and opens his mouth. “Fine I’m sorry.” He says. “Happy?” He questions and Marvin nods. 

“Very.” Marvin says and before Whizzer knows it, something cold splashes in his face and he lets out a short scream. The liquid trails down his face and into his shirt and Whizzer closes his eyes when they start to burn. “What the fuck!” He sputters, reaching for his shirt to wipe it off his face.

He doesn’t care that his clothes are white, and he’s not going to get the stain out. What he cares about is Marvin spilling coffee on his white clothes, and John being _angry_ and Whizzer is beyond frustrated already. 

“Marvin!” Whizzer exclaims. “You’re so childish, are you serious?” He goes to look up at the man, but hasn’t realized Marvin had left, leaving a big puddle of coffee and a very angry Whizzer in his departure. 

“It got in my hair you jackass!” He screams to particularly no one. Marvin is long gone and even then, the walls are soundproof, so no one could hear him anyways. 

He stands there for a while, until he remembers that standing there means wasting more time that he doesn’t have. So he grabs his stuff and goes to leave out during the back entrance. 

He doesn’t care that he didn’t clean the coffee up on the floor, the janitors check anyways unless you tell them not too. And Whizzer can’t really be bothered with anything, he just runs until he gets to his car and just drives home.   
  


When Whizzer comes home, John is already there. He takes a moment to collect himself before groaning and getting out of the car, walking up to the door with a fake smile on his face. He’s hardly ever been home after John, but he has a feeling today won’t be good.

He goes into the kitchen and his smile immediately vanishes, John is sitting at the table with his arms crossed and Whizzer knows what this all means, so he goes to sit down across from him, all familiar with the routine. 

“Where were you today?” John questions right away. Whizzer refrains from rolling his eyes. “I told you, my first day of the job was today.” He says and John perks up, eyes sparkling. 

“Good.” He says. “So where’s that money you owe me?” He questions and Whizzer sighs. “It’s only the first day, you’ll have to wait for the money when I get my first paycheck.” 

The room is silent for a moment, and John looks relatively calm. But Whizzer knows this means he isn’t and when John brings his hand down to slam it on the table, Whizzer only slightly flinches from the sound.

“Dammit Whizzer!” John nearly yells and Whizzer just sits there, staring. “You’ve been living here rent free and I haven’t asked anything from you!” He says and Whizzer wants to open his mouth and tell John that isn’t true. 

He wants to tell the man that he’s asked plenty of times for Whizzer to get down on his knees for him, to cook 3 meals a day and just be ready for him at his beck and call. That Whizzers tired of being here and he’s trying his best with the job he has _now_ so he has a place to stay. 

But he remains quiet.

“You’re so selfish Whizzer!” John screams. “All I ask is for you to have dinner on the table by the time I get home no matter what! And you can’t even do that! I don’t even push you to have sex anymore because you always make up an excuse not to do it! Do you know how lucky you have it by just living here? For nothing?” 

He looks at Whizzer expectantly and Whizzer blinks and shakes his head. “You’re right. I’m sorry.” Whizzer says quietly, looking at the brown wood of the table and John scoffs. 

“I should just kick you out right now.” He says and Whizzers eyes snap up to him. “What?” Whizzer questions hesitantly. “You know I have nowhere to go.” He says and John just silently sits there, looking at Whizzer with such malice in his eyes that Whizzer knows his threat would be lived out if he didn’t do what John wanted. 

Whizzer gets up from his chair and walks up behind John and hesitantly puts his hands on the man's shoulders. “I’m sorry you’re stressed.” Whizzer says gently massaging his shoulders. “Let me make it up you.” 

Whizzer swallows the lump in his throat and leans down to press a kiss into the side of John's throat and instead of tilting his head like he usually did, he remains still while Whizzer peppered kisses to his face. Whizzer knows that John isn’t about to cave anytime soon so he starts to trail his hands lower, closing his eyes and just willing his shaking hands to obey. 

John grabs at Whizzers hands that trailed from his shoulders to his chest and he shakes them off of him. “Go take a shower.” John says. “Look at you, can't even keep your clothes clean. You’re like a child, get cleaned up and make dinner.”

Whizzer nods and walks quickly to the shower, knowing that John would only yell at him again if he didn’t comply. He’s at least thankful that John has said nothing about making it up to him with sex, but Whizzer knows it’s only a matter of time before the dam breaks. 

When he gets to the bathroom, he looks into the mirror and he understands why John didn’t want Whizzer to touch him. He looks like a mess. His hair is flat and sticky from when Marvin threw the coffee at him, and his outfit looks like he got it out of the trash. 

_Fucking Marvin, he hasn’t even been in my life for a day and he’s already ruined it,_ Whizzer thinks before he gathers a shaky breath, and turns away from the mirror to start the shower.  
  


* * *

It’s been six months ever since Whizzer Brown entered Marvins life. Six. Months. And Marvin wonders how neither of them had gone bald from dealing with each other and the stress they bring.

They still fight on a daily basis, over petty things, mostly. One time, Whizzer blamed Marvin for finishing the last of the staff's coffee, even though Marvin knew that Whizzer knew it was Mendel who drank the rest of it. And Marvin only knew this cause he watched Whizzer who watched Mendel make it. ~~Whizzer was adorably pouting like a child the whole time.~~

Despite their petty rivalry, it didn’t go on much often. Usually they stayed clear of each other’s classrooms, only interacting in the hallways and the staff room. One time Marvin had tripped Whizzer in the hallway for that time Whizzer had snuck into his classroom and had written ‘MR. COHEN SUCKS’ followed by a poorly crude drawing of a penis on his board in permanent marker. 

It had taken Marvin nearly the whole day to get it off of his board. He tried to cover it up by scribbling it out in the non permanent marker so his middle school classes couldn’t see but when it got to the highschoolers, one of them erased his whole board when Marvin asked them to and he’d forgotten all about the drawing until he heard the laughter and he looked up before groaning in mortification. 

It took a while to calm them down, Marvins face was flushed by the time one of his students recommended putting the non permanent back over the permanent and then erasing it right away. It worked for the most part.

But that didn’t stop Marvin from placing his foot in front of Whizzer when the man smirked at him passing the hallway and as he watched Whizzer take the ridiculously funny fall, taking a couple students down with him, and glaring up at Marvin from the floor, he couldn’t remember the last time he’d ever laugh so hard. 

“You guys are childish.” Cordelia had said one day when Marvin watched Whizzer take a sip of his coffee before gagging on it. Marvin had taken the salt shaker and poured some of it into Whizzers coffee and acted like nothing out of the ordinary happened when Whizzer came back. He sat in the chair next to Mendel and watched as Whizzer finally took a sip of his drink.

When Whizzer looked at Marvin who was laughing, he scowled at the man before chugging the whole cup of coffee, giving Marvin his middle finger as revenge while chugging the whole thing. Marvin only laughed harder when Whizzers face scrunched up and he ran to the sink to spit out what was left. 

It took a while, but Whizzer straightened up and pointed at Marvin before giving his signature glare and walking away, his clothes clinging to his back like a second skin and for a second Marvin couldn’t look away for some reason until Cordelia opened her mouth. 

“It’s all in good fun.” Marvin said before turning back into his chair and looking at his three friends. “Just be thankful I’m not throwing actual punches at him. And it’s harmless.” 

Mendel grimaced. “I don’t know about harmless.” He said. “Whizzer just chugged coffee...that was filled with _salt._ ” He shuddered thinking about it and Marvin couldn’t help but snort before leaning back in his chair. 

“He’s the one who was stupid enough to chug the whole thing.” Marvin said before shaking his head. “Anyways would you rather us be at each other’s throats in a worse way?” 

“I think you’d like to be at his throat in another way.” Trina piped up and Marvin glanced at her, raising an eyebrow. 

“What’s that supposed to mean?” He said as he watched her sigh and meet his gaze for the first time in what felt like years. 

“Don’t give me that Marvin.” She snapped and Marvin was taken back, he thought that they were at least fine with each other again. Sure they didn’t really talk much but she no longer glared at him much when he looked at her and she didn’t yell at him when they carried on a conversation. 

Seeing as they were still on a rocky path, Marvin couldn’t help but to feel a little bit angry. “He’s totally your type! The whole pretty boy charade thing he has going on would usually be right up your ally! We can see the tension between you two so why don’t you just jump into bed with him! It’s all you’re known for!” She practically yelled at him, Cordelia and Mendel looked uncomfortable as Marvin breathed deeply through his nose.

“Don’t!” Marvin said, pointing a finger at her, he watched her flinch and a part of him felt bad as he lowered his hand. 

“That was years ago.” He said through gritted teeth. “How many times do I have to say sorry? How many times before you forgive me?” He said sadly but angrily.

“I’ll never be over it Marvin! I don’t care if you’re gay but I care that I caught you sleeping with our pool boy! That was the last straw for me!” She exclaimed back at him and he slammed his hands on the table, this time making everyone flinch. 

“I’m getting better Trina!” He yelled, face burning red. “Everyday I’m getting better and I’m a different person now! I’m sorry okay, but you need to learn to let it go! Just like I did when I caught you with Mendel!” He said and gasps echoed out across the room. Marvin wondered when his life was becoming a trashy drama. 

“That’s different and you know it!” She whispered and he scoffed. “What because you were both drunk? We were still together! Mid-divorce or not I said I’d get better for you and you cheated on me right back!” 

“You’re _gay_ Marvin! You can’t get better now matter how much you try! You’re the only one who has a problem with yourself.” She said coldly and Marvin shook his head. The bell rang for the start of school and Marvin abruptly got out of his chair, grabbing his bag. 

“I’m going to class.” He said ignoring all their protests and walked towards the door. 

“Marvin you’re the teacher you can be as late as you want.” He heard Mendel say but Marvin ignored him, opening the door and running straight into Whizzer who had his arm up like he was going to open the door. 

Marvin stood there for a moment, looking at Whizzers shocked face. There’s no doubt that Whizzer had heard all that and decided to eavesdrop. 

Six months ago, Marvin would’ve sneered at him, asking what he was looking at, before moving around him and maybe hitting Whizzers shoulder with his own. 

But the Marvin now was tired, and he didn’t want to deal with Whizzers mouth. So he just moved around the man, careful not to touch him, and walked off to go to his classroom.

He felt the heavy gaze of Whizzers eyes on his retreating form and he clenched his hands together in a fist. He felt the heavy indents of his fingernails making a dent into his palm and he didn’t loosen his grip until he got to his classroom. 

He opened the door and looked at all the bored middle school children before he clapped his hands together and said “Who wants to watch a movie?” 

The room remained silent and Marvin rolled his eyes. “Last offer, I’m being serious. What movie?” He said and the class immediately broke out into hysterics before yelling all at once. 

“Harry Potter!”

“Frozen!” 

“The Lion King!”

“50 Shades of Grey!” 

“Whoever suggested that one, congrats you ruined it for the whole class and I’m putting on a boring history movie.” He said ignoring the groans of protests and flipping on the projector at his desk. 

“You suck Mr. Cohen!” Said a student pouting and Marvin almost snorted before thinking about Whizzer, then he scowled. 

“I’m well aware.” He said blandly and put in the cd to make sure it worked. When it did he put his bag down on the ground before sitting down on his chair….

And then he immediately fell to the ground, hitting his head from the impact. He groaned from pain and embarrassment as he heard laughter echo around the room. 

_Fucking Whizzer,_ he thought. 

“Are you okay?” He heard a few students shout out from the noise and he lifted his head up to see what had happened.

His chair was missing a wheel, no doubt Whizzer had taken it apart after Marvin put salt in his coffee. That’s why he disappeared for so long. He sighed and let his head fall to the floor, looking at the ceiling and wondering on ways he could get Whizzer back. 

“Mr. Cohen? Are you gonna get off the floor?” 

“Give me a minute, Diane.” 

“My name is Caroline.” 

He grunted out his response. He wondered how his life turned out to be like this and then realized that it was guys like Whizzer who ruined his life. Over and over again. And Whizzer probably wouldn’t be the last.

Two thoughts bounced around his head when he thought about Whizzer. 

First, he totally deserved the whole chair prank. 

Second, Whizzer Brown was most definitely going to ruin his life. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m barely around people so I forgot how to make someone be in a rivalry. So enjoy Whizzer and Marvin pranking each other like children because that’s totally what they’ll do.


	4. I’d Offer To Buy You A Drink, But This Is Dry Clean Only

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A confession and apology, six months over due. (Jason sucks at baseball and Marvin is already smitten)

“Checkmate.” Jason says taking Whizzer’s king. Whizzer groans and pouts while looking at the smiling now twelve year old. “It’s been six months, how do you still suck?” Jason says and Whizzer sticks his tongue out at him, adulthood be damned. 

“I could’ve won when we played 3 weeks ago for your birthday.” 

“No you couldn’t”

“I totally could’ve.”

Whizzer surveys his surroundings, at the group of kids who are either jumping rope or dribbling basketballs, just being kids and having fun in general and Whizzer smiles. He’s glad he doesn’t really have to do much, just a physical test here and there, which he’s seriously thankful for. 

He enjoys playing chess with Jason almost everyday, he still has to make Jason at least participate in some sport, even if Jason tries to use his puppy dog eyes. Even though Whizzer hates the game and sucks at it, he can’t help but like the kid. 

Whizzer’s not playing favorites, but if he was Jason is definitely his favorite kid out of all his classes.

“What are you doing for the summer?” Jason questions Whizzer as he starts up another game and Whizzer turns to look at him. “No idea, kid. What about you?” 

Jason shrugs, looking down at the chess board with a sad expression on his face. “Mom says I have to go stay with dad.” He says so sadly that Whizzer puts a comforting hand on his shoulder.

“Do you not like your dad?” Whizzer questions, if the kid does he can’t blame him. Marvin is not the most pleasant person, and judging by the conversation Whizzer accidentally heard not too long ago, there’s a lot of family baggage that needs unloading. 

And Jason spends the weekends over there, and this is his first time staying over at Marvins for a whole two months before in his life. So Whizzer can’t blame Jason for feeling sad. 

“It’s not that.” Jason sighs as Whizzer begins the game. “It’s just that they fight all the time and I have to hear them complain about each other, they keep me out of the loop with what’s going on. It’s exhausting.” 

He moves a piece across the board and Whizzer’s heart clenches. “They’re both immature.”

“Not every family is perfect kiddo, not even mine, but your parents love you. They just need time.” Whizzer says and Jason shrugs before continuing to play the game. 

It’s silent between them for a while, the only noise Whizzer hears is his own breathing, all the other kids running around causing a racket and the clinking of the chess pieces. 

“What about your parents?” Jason questions him and his hand pauses from where he was about to steal Jason's king for the first time. Jason is visibly distressed about something if he was going to lose not even five minutes into the game. 

Whizzer looks up at Jason's curious face and swallows before moving one of his pawns instead. If Jason notices, he doesn’t say anything. 

Whizzer wants to shake it off as a fluke, but something is bothering Jason, usually Whizzer would’ve lost the game this far in, the fact that he could’ve taken Jason’s king bothers him for some unknown reason.

Whizzer lets out a weak chuckle. “There’s not much to tell. Not a very happy home life, they kicked me out when I was 16.” 

“For being gay?” Jason questions, he’d known Whizzer was gay when he asked one day and he couldn’t lie to the kid. 

Whizzer nods his head. “Do you think my parents would do that to me?” He looks at Jason with sad eyes and Whizzer snaps his eyes towards him. “Are you gay?” Whizzer questions softly and Jason shakes his head.

“I don’t know. What if I inherit it from my dad?” Jason says and looks up at Whizzer, he must notice the surprise on Whizzer’s face and his face scrunches up. “Did you not know he was gay? He’s pretty much out to the whole school.” He asks and Whizzer lightly scoffs.

“I may have heard a conversation or two but until today, I’ve had no idea.” Whizzer says. “But Jason, just because your father is gay doesn’t make you gay, I mean it’s fine if you are but it’s not like something you’ll catch one day. It’s not a disease. And you shouldn’t be scared of it. I’ll support you, no matter what.” 

”Thanks.” Jason nods. “Dad was scared at first, but I think he’s come to learn too.” Jason says and moves another piece off the board. Whizzer nods. “That’s good for him.” Whizzer says smiling at Jason.

“...I like girls.” Jason smiles.

“That’s good for you, can’t relate.” Whizzer beams and Jason moves the last piece off the board, capturing Whizzers king. Whizzers smile immediately vanishes off his face in disappointment.

“Checkmate.”

“Another round?” Whizzer questions, setting up the board before Jason could reply. “I’m totally gonna beat you this time, I can feel it.”

“You say that everytime.” 

“Well this time I mean it.” Whizzer says gesturing for Jason to begin this time.

“You say that everytime too.” Jason playfully huffs, but he goes to start the game with a smile on his face, and that’s all Whizzer could ever hope for.

* * *

  
Marvin sighs and angrily huffs at the piece of paper Jason had given him.

To give to Whizzer.

He resists the urge to crumple up the paper, to throw it away and tell Jason that he gave it to Whizzer, but he knows Jason would ask the man and then get mad at Marvin for lying to him about it. 

Jason isn’t even in baseball yet, he can’t sign up until next school year, but he’s already written Whizzer a letter asking if he’ll come to his first big game. 

He hadn’t even asked Marvin to come, because Marvin hates baseball, which is true. He does hate it, but if Jason wants to play, then Marvin could obviously get over his boredom and learn to love it, because Jason loves it, and he loves Jason. 

He’d do anything for Jason.

Except this, he doesn’t really want to do this. 

The halls of the school are empty, and his shoes echo across the wall with each sound they make. Heading towards the gym feels like a death sentence, and maybe it is, because behind those gym doors will be the clean and pristine Whizzer Brown. Marvin’s enemy, or whatever the fuck Whizzer wants to call them.

The games they played were fun (not when they happened to Marvin though). It was fun to pull pranks, no matter how childish, and Marvin had never done anything like that before. It felt like a high, a silly and really immature, high but Marvin never really did grow up and apparently neither did the other man.

He stops until he’s in front of the gym doors, and his hand goes to open it before he hesitates. Seeing Whizzer’s smug face in the teachers lounge for six months was enough to throw him off balance no matter what, and he usually preferred to never see the attractive, but slightly moronic adult again.

This is for Jason, he reminds himself and takes a deep breath before throwing the door open a little more forcefully then he wanted too. It bounces off the wall and Marvin visibly cringes before walking into the gym. 

He quickly glances around, looking for what he came for, and seeing that since Whizzer isn’t around, he goes to walk back out. 

A sound echoes out from the supply closet and Marvin sighs. Of course Whizzer would be in the closet. He’d nearly forgotten about that.

Marvin turns back around and makes his way towards the closet, trying to be as quiet as possible for some reason unbeknownst to him. The door is open and Whizzer has his back towards him, and for another reason he doesn’t know, he almost trips over his steps. Everyone has a back, so why does Marvin falter at the sight of Whizzer’s?

Maybe he’s going crazy from the conversation earlier today. Trina was still visibly upset over what happened years ago and now as payback she’s putting thoughts into his head about Whizzer. Thoughts he shouldn’t even be thinking about at all, especially at school and especially about Whizzer. 

The conversation from earlier is doing this to him, not Whizzer. Whizzer is not his type, no matter what anyone says.

His eyes travel down lower, admiring the man before he snaps out of it and clears his throat. His neck burns heavy behind his collar. Whizzer jumps, clearly startled that he didn’t know Marvin was here, and drops whatever he’s holding. He looks at Marvin and glares before bending down to pick up the box. Marvin looks at it and smirks.

“Beat Jason at chess yet?” He teases and Whizzer straightens up before putting the game away.

“As a matter of fact, no. He’s a fucking whiz when it comes to this game.” Whizzer says before putting his hands on his hips and looking at Marvin. “What are you doing here?” He questions. “I thought it was an unspoken rule to stay away from each other's turfs.” 

Marvin scoffs at the word. “Sure it is, I just came to give you this paper Jason made for you.” Marvin thrusts the paper out towards Whizzer, who nearly drops it, glaring at Marvin before looking down and smiling, straightening out the creases Marvin had put in it.

“He’s joining baseball?” Whizzer asks softly. “But he sucks at it.” 

Marvin lightly rolled his eyes, seeing Whizzer talk about Jason in such a fond voice, even if it was an insult, made his chest swell with pride. He loves talking about his son no matter what or who it’s with.

And Whizzer is right, Jason does suck at baseball. 

“Apparently he wants to learn because of you.” Marvin said. “He goes on and on about the sport and how much you love it.”

“Have you ever took him to a baseball game?” Whizzer questions for the first time, even if it comes off as innocent and curious, Marvin’s shoulders draw in on himself and he counts to ten quickly before saying a response. 

He and Whizzer have times where they can have a decent conversation, if only for a minute, but Marvins is not exactly young anymore and he needs to learn to be more….not him. 

“I hate baseball.” Whizzer raises an eyebrow, folding up the paper and putting it in his back pocket, wearing a pastel green button up and brown jeans instead of his gym uniform Marvin sees him wearing eighty percent of the time.

“Well, thanks. Tell Jason I’ll definitely come in a few months. Maybe I’ll give him some pointers.” Whizzer said, turning back towards the supply closet. Marvin should take this cue to go, Whizzer made it clear that the conversation was over, cutting it short and going back to work. 

Usually, Marvin would take it and leave as quickly as he could, but actually having a conversation with Whizzer made something stir deep within Marvin, and his mouth opened before his brain could process anything.

“I’m sorry.”

He watched Whizzer angle his body towards him, clearly surprised but a smirk on his face, an innocent look in his eyes. Marvin knew nothing about Whizzer could be innocent. 

“I’m sorry.” Whizzer teasingly drawled out. “You’re what? I didn’t quite hear what you said.” Marvin blew out a breath and rolled his eyes, but this was something he needed to do. 

“I said I’m sorry.” He repeated and Whizzer blinked. “For what?”

Marvin shook his head, he couldn’t believe he was doing this, apologizing to Whizzer in the first place (even if it was Marvin’s fault all this happened). “I’m sorry for blaming you for the coffee incident and for calling you names. I apologize.” He looked Whizzer in the eyes to show how sorry he was, and for some reason his breath hitched. He made a mental note to go to check it out one day at Charlotte’s. 

Perhaps he was getting sick.

Whizzers face softened just a little bit, his mouth quirking up into a little smile. “Thank you.” He said and a wave of silence passed over them. Marvin looked at Whizzer expectantly and the man snapped out of whatever trance he was in. 

“Right.” Whizzer said laughing a little. “I’m sorry for that too, and for accidentally listening in on the conversation this morning. I swear I didn’t mean to.”

Marvin shook his head. “Don’t worry about that now, what’s done is done. I don’t want to talk about it.” He said and Whizzer nodded. He didn’t care that Whizzer knew now, he was out in the open and not ashamed. Plus Whizzer was gay himself and it’s not like he could be homophobic.

“You totally owe me a coffee by the way.” Whizzer said, changing the subject. “From that shit prank you pulled this morning and from the one that caused all of this.” Marvin nodded, chuckling a little bit.

“Well, I’d offer you to buy you one but I don’t think we should be allowed to have drinks near each other.” Whizzer smiled. “The least I can do is offer a truce, a real one this time.”

“I’ll take that.” Whizzer said picking up his bag and walking towards the door. “You can also walk me out.” Marvin raised an eyebrow but followed after him, walking across the gym and standing to the side when Whizzer went to go lock his door. 

Even the way Whizzer walked was something else. With a pep in his step and his hips slightly swaying from side to side. Something that bothered Marvin into do something about it, and something about that made him tick all the same. 

Marvin watched his nimble fingers hold and mess with the key and he ran his eyes up the man's arms. He stopped short when he saw a yellowish tint on the skin. 

“Wow.” He said and Whizzer looked at him questiongly. “The kids are really rough aren’t they.” He said gesturing towards the bruise. “That look liked it hurt.” Judging by the color, it had to have happened a long time ago. 

Whizzer looked down at it and shrugged. His content face vanished for a split second, changing into something sad and something angry. “Yeah, the kids.” He said quietly. He cleared his throat. 

“You know me, always attracting balls.” He grinned and Marvin rolled his eyes.

“Are the ball jokes ever going to stop?” He groaned and he and Whizzer walked towards the front of the school together. 

“Nope.” Whizzer said popping the ‘p’. “It’s my trademark now. You’re stuck with it, deal with it.” Against all odds, Marvin found himself smiling but he quickly hid his grin behind his hand. Whizzer didn’t notice, just stared straight ahead. 

“Jason’s really an amazing kid by the way.” Whizzer said after a while. “He doesn’t like to play any of the sports, but his knowledge of chess is incredible.” Marvin nodded. 

“I’ve won against him once, and even then it took months.” Marvin said and Whizzer giggles. “I can’t believe we’re getting beat at chess by a _kid_.” 

Marvin giggles with him, and if he was anyone else, it might’ve looked strange. The history teacher and gym teacher, known enemies, walking each other out and giggling like the girls in Marvin’s third period. But no ones here in the hallway, so it’s their little secret. Marvin likes the sound of that.

They arrive towards the door, and Marvin opens the door after Whizzer just stands there looking at him expectantly. 

“What a gentleman.” Whizzer exclaims and Marvin bows before straightening up and cringing at himself for being so awkward. Whizzer smiles and they walk outside, separating to go to their respective cars. 

Marvins side feels cold from where Whizzer has left it, but he blames it on the wind that is picking up tonight.

“Marvin!” Whizzer exclaims across the parking lot. Marvin stopped halfway in his car from when he opened the door and looked at him in confusion. 

“Don’t use the faculty sink tomorrow!” Whizzer screams and Marvin's face screws up on confusion. 

“What did you do to it?” Marvin yells back and Whizzer grins. “Just wait until tomorrow, you’ll figure it out.” He laughs. 

“This doesn’t make us friends by the way!” Whizzer says still yelling and Marvin shakes his head at the absurdity of it all. They’re yelling across the parking lot like children, but Marvin doesn’t care. 

“I didn’t expect it too.” Marvin says and Whizzer tilts his head, obnoxiously waving at Marvin before getting in his car and driving off. 

Marvin watched him go, his stomach churning, but in a good way for once and he wondered what it all could mean. Being Not-friends with Whizzer couldn’t be that bad. 

And it wasn’t, especially since the next day he _had_ remembered to not use the sink in the teachers lounge. And he watched with sick satisfaction as Mendel turned the sink on, water gushing out of the sprayer and hitting him directly in his face. He screamed like a little girl before turning it off and glaring at Marvin and Whizzer, who sat next to each other, a respectable three feet between them. 

Trina and Cordelia looked at the scene, deciding on whether they should laugh or not. Trina was hiding her smile behind her hand and Cordelia took a sip of coffee to fight the incoming laughter.

“Who did it?” Mendel questioned, looking like a wet dog. 

Marvin glanced at Whizzer, who looked back, and tried not to laugh. He failed from not smiling when he saw the bright grin on Whizzers face. His heart beating heavy in his chest. 

“Not me.” They both exclaimed at the same time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow hi! It’s been a while lol. This is the longest I have gone without updating. I promise, I’m not abandoning this fic, I’ve had a bad case of writers block because of school being cancelled. And I mostly hangout on Tumblr now. I will finish this fic! Just expect longer updates, I’m really trying with this one! As always comments and kudos are appreciated! Thank you guys so much!


End file.
